SMBI #85 Early Church Fathers

Smoky Mountain Bible Institute

(Est. 2009) Lesson #85

            It has been a few months since we departed from our time line but we return. We are at around 180 AD. The first 400 years of Christianity show both growth and persecution. After centuries of strife and struggle eventually the Gospel message goes from being the faith of persecuted minorities to a faith that spans the Roman Empire and eventually becomes the faith of the emperor and all respectable citizens. That actually presents the church with a new and different set of problems.

            It may be helpful to cover early church history from the perspective of early church leaders called ‘Fathers’. For the sake of our discussion we will break the ‘Fathers’ into five groups and address each group separately, including notable historic facts associated with each of them or their group. This list is by no means exhaustive but instead is an overview.

Apostolic Fathers: called this because they learned directly from Jesus’ apostles. Polycarp (69-155) Bishop of Smyrna in Turkey and student of the apostle John. Ignatius (35-117) Bishop of Antioch. Clement (30-100) of Rome, said to have been consecrated by Saint Peter and listed as the 4^th of Rome’s 266 Popes.

Early Apologist: Justin Martyr (100-165) Known for his theological writings, most of which are lost but his works titled “First Apology”, Second Apology”, “Dialogue with trypho” and fragments of the work “On the Resurrection” are available to this day. Tertullian (155-240) 31 of his works are still available today and cover many areas of the Christian faith.

The following were church fathers who, through their leadership and writings, contributed to the organizing and clarifying of what the universal Christian church believed, taught and practiced in accord with God’s word.    

Early Fathers Origen (185-254), Sextus Julius Africanis (160-240) known as the father of Christian chorography, Irenaeus (130-202) Bishop of Lyons.

Nicene Fathers Called that because they lived during the council of Nicea (325) the council in which the church adopted the Nicene Creed.  Athanasius (296-373) Bishop of Alexandra Egypt, the man for whom the Athanasian Creed (later in the 4^th or 5^th century) is named because of his stand against the Arian heresy (which, in its modern form, is Jehovah Witnesses), Eusebius (263-339) a bishop and historian, wrote his famous church history in 303.  Lactantius (c240-c325) Christian writer who became an advisor to Emperor Constantine.   Hilary (c291-c371) Bishop of Poitiers and a Doctor of the Church. He was sometimes referred to as the "Hammer of the Arians".

            Throughout history the church took the best works of all these Fathers and used them to better teach and project the faith into the world around them, and much of what they wrote we still us to guide us today. 

            Some other key events during this window of time would be the Edict of Tolerance for Christians in 260 by Emperor Valerian. Arius and the Arian heresy condemned at Alexandria in 318, debated and finalized at the Council of Nicea in 325. We will look at group five, the Post Nicene Fathers, in our next lesson.  

Till next month Pastor Portier                         

SMBI #84

Smoky Mountain Bible Institute

(Est. 2009) Lesson #84

Let’s continue our discussion of how we got the bible this month. Some early historical witnesses and early church witnesses. Irenaeus of Lyons is a man studied under Polycarp who was martyred in 155 AD, and it is traditionally held that Polycarp was a student of the Apostle John. So, Irenaeus was only one generation from the original writers of Scripture.  This makes him a very reliable witness.  Irenaeus is one of the earliest and greatest defenders of Scripture’s divine inspiration.  In his writings from around 180 AD, he quoted over 1000 scripture passages from all but 5 books of the New Testament. Irenaeus called them “the Scriptures” given by the Holy Spirit.  Similar claims of divine inspiration can be cited in the 3^rd century by the early church fathers, Clement and Origin of Alexandria.  They too cite Scripture as a fixed number of writings with divine authorship. Origin is the first to mention all 27 books of the NT in 240 AD. Let’s look at one more church father—Athanasius of Alexandria. He too cites 27 NT books in 367 AD, and he wrote the following words: “These are the fountains of salvation, that whoever thirsts, may be satisfied by the eloquence which is in them.  In them alone is set forth the doctrine of piety. Let no one add to them nor take anything from them.” You may think these witnesses are biased and they probably were, but their bias does not invalidate their witness.  Their credibility is not historically in question, so their witness is of great value.

            We also have the Jewish historian Josephus who is accepted world-wide as one of history’s earliest historians.  He refers to sacred scriptures divided into three parts: the five books of the Torah; thirteen books of the Nevi'im, and four other books of hymns and wisdom. Since there are 24 books in the current Jewish canon instead of the 22 mentioned by Josephus, some scholars have suggested that he considered Ruth part of Judges, and Lamentations part of Jeremiah. “The Jewish Canon has only 24 books because of the combination of books like Kings & Chronicles their 24 contain the same information as our 39.  So let’s see what he had to say about our Old Testament.  In about 90 AD, Josephus wrote the following words: “for we have not an innumerable multitude of books among us, disagreeing from and contradicting one another [as the Greeks have] but only twenty-two books, which contain all the records of all the past times, and which are justly believed to be divine.” 

Till next month Pastor Portier                         

SMBI #83

Smoky Mountain Bible Institute

(Est. 2009) Lesson #83

So let’s do a brief discussion of how we got what we today call the bible. Discussing what we know as the 66 books of the bible and how they came together in the first three centuries of Christianity. Much of this was covered way back in lessons 3 and 4 but it is appropriate to review that here as we addressed that over 7 years ago.

            First let’s look at the Old Testament (OT).  39 books written between 1446 BC to around 433 BC.  It constitutes the solid foundation upon which the New Testament stands, and points to Christ in its entirety.  All Hebrew scholarship is in agreement as to what constitutes the TANAK, The Torah or (Law); Genesis, through Deuteronomy, Neviim or (Prophets); Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the 12 minor prophets, The Kethubim (writings); Psalms Proverbs, Job, Ruth, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, Ester, Daniel, Ezra & Nehemiah, Chronicles.  This Old Testament Canon has been accepted as the divine Word of God by His people for almost 2500 years.  And since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, we have copies of OT text that range in age from 2100 to 2300 years old with the exception of the book of Esther the oldest copy being just over 1000 years old. 

            Trinitarian Christianity and all of biblical scholarship find full agreement on the 27 books that constitute the New Testament, written between 45 and 95 AD.  The earliest list is the Muratorian Canon from 150 AD listing 24 books.  Origen of Alexandria listed all 27 in 240 AD, and by 397 AD Eusebius, Athanasius, and the Council of Carthage had all listed the 27 books we call the New Testament.

            Now you might ask: Why did it take them so long, some 150 to 300 years to identify these 27 books?  Well, that would be a very good question and here are some very good answers.

            - Over half of the NT is letters that were spread all over the Roman Empire, The Gospels were also spread throughout the early church.  These obviously took time to be brought together and for their authorship to be verified.

            - The “technology” of the day was not conducive to large collections of books: scrolls which can only hold one or two books.  Scrolls were replaced by what is called a Codex or “books with pages” and these did not start being produced until the second and third centuries.

            - The first century Christians probably did not see the need for a collection of books because they thought Christ’s return would be very soon, but “soon” for us and “soon” for our eternal God are very different.

            - Heretical writings existed, like the Gnostic gospels, and other “pseudepigraphal” books—spurious writings falsely attributed to biblical characters or times.  These texts were written between 200 BC--200 AD and were easily identified by the early church as fraudulent because of their clear contradiction to the rest of the canon.  But excluding these fraudulent works also took time.

            Now many say that centuries of copying to replace old worn-out text would introduce many errors.  Well, let’s look at all the errors introduced into the book of Isaiah between the Dead Sea Scroll copy (from about 100 BC) and the earliest copy we had available (before the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered) known as Codex Leningradensis (1000 AD).  The differences between these two texts over that 1100 year period, can be described as changes in the style that a particular letter is written, changes in the way words are spelled, changes in the way sentences are constructed, changes in prefixes or suffixes.  It seems that over time as the language changed, but God’s word grew to communicate the same truth. So, while grammar and spelling have changed, God’s word has not. 

Till next month In Christ Pastor Portier

Smoky Mountain Bible Institute

(Est. 2009) Lesson #82

Last time we ended at around 180 AD and I said we would make our way up to around 300 AD. Discussing how what we know as the 66 books of the bible how they came together in the first three centuries of Christianity. However, one of your classmates asked a question about the iron age and I remember discussing that topic a few years back so for the sake of time and space we will come back to our time line next year and for now I will re-present to you lesson # 43 from march of 2013 in answer to that question.

To give a thorough treatment of history, we must have a brief discussion of prehistory.  I say brief because as a “young earth” creationist, I believe most, if not all, topics of discussion in the bulk of scientific study that would fall under the umbrella of prehistory to be incorrectly dated.  However, just because I disagree with most experts on the timing of prehistoric research, does not mean there is not a lot of valuable information to be drawn from that research. So, what we will do in this lesson is see how a young earth creationist can piece together all the great information in the prehistoric realm of study (what is popularly held to be a period from 3.5 million years ago to around 5000 BC when ancient recorded history began), and logically plug that information into the biblical timeline that starts around 4000 BC.  I would like to suggest that all that is called prehistory can fit logically into a timeline that starts around 4000 BC and ends around 1500 BC.  This proposal will seem ridiculous to some, but in prehistory, all timeline assertions are based for the most part on Carbon 14 dating and other assumptions.  I addressed these false assumptions in lessons #21 and #22.  To do this, we must first discuss the commonly held timeline for prehistory, and then discuss how that can be applied to a biblical timeline.

            Prehistory forms the popularly held three-age world view:  Stone age 3.5 million to 4500 BC, Bronze age 3750 BC to 300 BC, and Iron age 1300 BC to 400 AD.  You will notice some peculiar things about my summary of ages here. First, there are some major overlaps and second, this goes deep into the time of recorded history. This is because I have summarized the entire world’s progression through these ages.  Different regions of the world entered and exited these ages at different times.  What I have listed here is the earliest entry into an age followed by the latest exit from that age.  These ages are determined by when these regions progressed through these technologies (stone, bronze, iron) be it through conquest, commerce, or ingenuity. Prehistory also starts at different times in different places based on the development of written languages which is popularly held to be between 3500 BC and 2500 BC. Ancient history is typically defined as around 3300 BC to 600 AD. To finish things out, the Middle ages is popularly defined as 300 AD to 1500 AD with the Renaissance starting around 1350 AD, and the modern period beginning as early as 1450 AD. Again, you will see overlaps due to different regions entering and exiting these ages at different times. As you can see in a discussion of world history, a simple question of where to begin can be a bit complicated.

            I propose that all the prehistoric scientific dates listed above are simply misdated and can logically be placed in a biblical prehistoric time of 4000 BC to 1500 BC. During this biblical period of prehistory, the world was created around 4000 BC, plus or minus no more than 50 years.  The world was populated to about 25 billion in the first 1650 years. Then the world was destroyed in a flood around 2350 BC reducing the population to 8 and covering the earth with a large fossil layer and causing what remained of pre-flood civilization to be hard to date and analyze because of the vast geographic and geological changes that took place. In the 700 years that followed the flood, large ice caps formed and receded (see lesson #35).

            From a biblical perspective, the oldest written words are found in the book of Job from around 2000 BC. The next books in line are the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible written by Moses from 1446 BC to 1406 BC during the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness.  While we can have an intelligent debate on when history began, you would be hard pressed to find any written historical accounts that talk about events that predate 4000 BC because they do not exist.  This means that all discussion of prehistory must depend on areas of research outside the realm of written history.  When it comes to written history, the most dependable is the written account of a firsthand witness. What we have in Genesis, chapters 1 through 11, is the first-hand account of the Creator given directly to Moses for him to record in the Hebrew language some 3400 years ago. So, there is a basic representation of Lesson #43 and next month we will resume our time line walk and probubly end up at around 300 AD. And a brief discussion on the canonization of scripture. Full plate for January.

Till next month Pastor Portier                         

Lesson #81 Early Church

Smoky Mountain Bible Institute

(Est. 2009) Lesson #81

Last time we ended with the martyrdom of Peter and Paul circa 68 AD. I am not sure how big a piece we can break off of the remaining 1948 years of history but let’s take a bite and see how much we can chew on in this month of elections and turkey dinners.

            Let’s start with one of the single most significant events in the first century, in the fall of 70 AD. This was the point at which Rome had had enough of the zealots and their rebellion and decided to squash this irritating little region and make an example of them. The troubles started in 66 AD but by fall of 70 AD, under Tacitus, the Romans had destroyed the 500-year-old second temple.  For centuries many historic things and events were actually dated based on the number of years ‘since the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem’.

           

            Some other things going on in the world in the first and second centuries were: Rome reached its greatest geographical size under Emperor Trajan, who ruled from 98 to 116 AD; Emperor Hadrian built his wall to protect his British colonies from 122 to 127; Afghanistan is first invaded by the Huns around 200 AD; Tacitus writes his history around 117; Pope Victor the First, Bishop of Rome, is officially the 15^th Pope (but it was not until near the end of his time in 199 that the Roman pontificate claimed the predominate position that it still claims today); Some of the oldest known Mayan monuments date back to around 168 AD; Ptolemy drew maps of 26 countries around 170 AD; and Rome suffered a great plague, one of the first on record from 134 to 180 AD.

            We will keep it short this month and next month we will make our way up to around 300 AD. We will also discuss how what we know as the 66 books of the Bible came together in the first three centuries of Christianity. That will leave us about 1700 years to cover in 2017.     

Till next month Pastor Portier                         

Lesson #80

Smoky Mountain Bible Institute

(Est. 2009) Lesson #80

Last time we ended with Ascension Day on Mt. Olivet near Bethany, May 14^th, 33 AD. So let’s press on. We only have 1983 years left to cover but over 90% of recorded history is in the last two millennia. For that matter actually the last 500 years probably account for half of all historic materials. Mankind gets better at recording history and saving that record from the ravages of time so that the more recent a historical event the better chance it has of being well documented. (P.S. the dates that follow are all AD)

So let us enter the age of the early church with that in mind. In its first few years the young church starts to structure itself and suffers a few blows from the evil one. Matthias is chosen to replace Judas shortly after Jesus death and resurrection. After Pentecost, in May of 33, they go out spreading the Gospel and even performing miracles in Jesus’s name. The apostles suffer trials, beatings, the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira and the martyrdom of Stephen. In mid-36 Paul went from being one of the church’s greatest persecutors to one of its greatest champions. For the next decade the apostles are busy preaching and teaching the faith; in 36 & 37 Philip preaches and plants churches in Samaria & Judea, in 37 & 38 Paul is in Arabia, Damascus, and Jerusalem.  Peter sees and reports the conversion of Cornelius and other gentiles in 39 & 40. At that time Barnabas and Paul are in Antioch. In 43 Peter travels to Rome and Paul and Barnabas return to Judea with relief resources for the other churches. In late 42 early 43 Agrippa the First executes James and imprisons Peter. Later in 43, Agrippa the First dies and Paul, Barnabas and John-Mark go to Antioch.

The rest of the datable events in the first century church can be structured around Paul’s missionary journeys. His first journey was with Barnabas from 45-48 when they visited Cyprus, Pisidan, Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, and Perga. During this trip Paul establishes churches and helps to organize and give guidance to new churches. In 49, between Paul’s first and second journey, a church council was convened in Jerusalem. That spring Peter went to Antioch and treated gentile Christians as poorly as the Judaizers did. He later got an ear full from Paul. As they reconciled, they set into practice Christ’s teaching that in His universal church, all were to be treated without favoritism or cultural separation but as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Paul’s second journey was from 49 to 51. His companions for this journey, in whole or in part, were Barnabas, Mark, and Silas. This trip takes him to Cyprus, Cilicia, Syria, Galatia, Troas, Philippi, Thessalonica, Brea, and Athens. Paul spent about half of this trip in Corinth where he wrote 1 Thessalonians and went before a Gallio’s tribunal. His journey ended in Caesarea in the winter of 51 and just a few months later in 52 his third missionary journey began from Syrian Antioch (where a lot of today’s conflict is taking place). His companions for parts of this journey were Apollos, Timothy and Erastus. This trip went to Galatia, Phrygia, Corinth, Ephesus (while here he wrote 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Corinthians and possibly Galatians, some believe Galatians was written during the first journey), Macedonia, Greece (while here he wrote Romans), Philippi, Troas, Miletus and finally back in Jerusalem in 55.

The next 13 years are very tumultuous for Paul. He is imprisoned and spends the next two years going through legal proceedings with Governor Felix, Drusilla, Governor Festus, and the chief priest Herod Agrippa & Bernice, all playing a part in his long litigation. Finally, his appeal to Cesar is granted and is sent to Rome. He leaves Caesarea in September of 57. After a stop in Crete he survives a ship wreck in Malta and spends the winter there, cared for by the kind natives. He leaves in February of 58 and arrives in Rome in March of 58. Paul was released in 60 and that is when many believe he made a trip to Spain (a fourth missionary journey) which he mentions in his third journey. We have no record of the actual trip. James the half-brother of Jesus and Bishop of Jerusalem was martyred in 62. Then in 65, Paul leaves Titus in Crete and Timothy in Ephesus.  Paul’s final church visits are Macedonia in 65, Nicopolis & Ephesus in 66 and the last in Troas in 67 where he is again arrested. This time he and Peter are martyred in Rome in late 67 early 68.

            All of these names, dates, and locations are important because they speak to the historicity and the truth claims of the Apostles, the early church and Scripture.

Till next month Pastor Portier                                           

Lesson #79 Post Resurrection Appearances

Smoky Mountain Bible Institute

(Est. 2009) Lesson #79

As I mentioned last time, the first Easter was probably April 5^th, 33 AD. This month I would like to briefly discuss the 40-day period between Easter Sunday and Ascension Day; two very important dates on the church’s calendar. The article at Answers in Genesis which is linked below does a good job of summarizing and addressing any supposed conflicts in the biblical accounts. There are some historical facts that must be dealt with by those who claim Christianity is just a big hoax.

First, there was an empty tomb. There were also many witnesses not only to the empty tomb, but also to the multiple appearances of the man who was laid in that tomb, walking talking, and even eating. Second, if one were going to make up a story to support a false religion, would it not make sense that they would in some way benefit from the hoax? Keep in mind that the list of reliable witnesses I am about to summarize for you were for the most part persecuted and martyred for their bold witness.

On Easter day Jesus appeared to no fewer than 5 women, 4 of whom we know by name: 2 named Mary, Salome, Joanna, and at least one other unnamed woman. He appeared also to no fewer than 12 men, including 10 of the apostles (Simon & Peter twice), and the two disciples headed to Emmaus: Clopas and his un-named companion. On April 12^th you can add Thomas to the list. So already in the first week we have 6 separate appearances and 18 firsthand witnesses.

Additionally, sometime in the following weeks, recorded for our benefit, was an appearance at the sea of Tiberius (which is what the sea of Galilee was called in the coastal area around the town of Tiberius). This appearance included 5 named apostles and two other disciples. In Matthew 28, the resurrected Jesus appears to the Apostles on a mountain in Galilee. He then institutes what is often called “The Great Commission”, instructing them to baptize and teach the faith to all nations. This is also from where the church draws the “baptismal formula” under which all Christians are to be baptized into the triune name of God. There was one more pre-ascension appearance recorded for us in 1 Corinthians 15, in which over 500 brethren witnessed the resurrected Christ.

       Lastly came Ascension Day on Mt. Olivet near Bethany, May 14^th, 33 AD. We do not know how many of Jesus’ disciples were there, but we do know he had more than 70, and after 40 days, many if not most would have been (I am guessing of course) on sort of high alert; a “where will he appear next?” sort of mind set. Suffice it to say there were a lot of disciples there. A small chapel stands on the spot at which this is traditionally thought to have taken place. Historic traditional locations for things are, the result of generations of individuals witnessing to the importance of that location.

Hundreds of reliable witnesses have given us reports of at least 10 post-resurrection appearances. The question now becomes, “what evidence exists to refute the claims of scripture?” I contend that there is none, and disbelief that resurrection from the dead is possible is not a valid argument!

see the link below for a graphic time line that I could not past here

Link to article: answersingenesis.org/jesus-christ/resurrection/the-sequence-of-christs-post-resurrection-appearances